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Huckabee blasts Obama as small business killer

Stumps for McCain in Charlotte

Originally published by Mike “gamecock” DeVine as Charlotte Law and Civil Rights Examiner for Examiner.com

“Small businesses should be making business decisions, not tax decisions.”

So declared John McCain’s friendliest vanquished rival for the Republican presidential nomination during a campaign rally in Charlotte last week that skewered Barack Obama for change small businesses can’t believe in.

Former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee minced no words in his condemnation of changes the Democratic presidential nominee proposes that would raise taxes on small businesses.

Adam Barrington, an ordained minister and former homeless shelter administrator (pictured right with Huckabee), served as our eyes and ears during the McCain-Palin rally last Wednesday at Hef’s Bar & Grill:

“[Huckabee delivered] a general stump speech for McCain, but the one thing that stuck out was [that] he talked about how small businesses are going to get screwed under Obama. He talked about a mom and pop pizza place…that employs 45 people… [that], with rising energy and fuel costs [and] their profit margins…shrinking, [would] have to lay people off to pay their tax bill (under Obama’s tax plan).”

Huckabee’s indictment of Obama’s policies concerning existing businesses comes on the heels of Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher’s concerning disincentives to start new businesses. When confronted by Joe, the junior Senator from Illinois declared that it was “good for everybody” to “spread the wealth around.”

One wonders how much wealth won’t be available for spreading around if Obama has his way, since he would:

1) allow the Bush income tax rate cuts to expire in 2010, costing families of four making as little as $60K, up to $2000 per year;
2) raise the level of income against which Social Security Payroll (FICA) taxes apply;
3) increase the “death tax”; and
4) increase income and capital gains taxes for families earning more than $250K per year.

Most jobs in this country are created by small businesses. Obama touts his policies as friendly to small business since “most” would not be affected by numbers (3) and (4) above, never mind the devastating effect of number (2) on them. But Obama’s law changes would apply to more than half of all income produced by such businesses, earned by the very ones that are the large job producers.

All of the above is proposed amidst an unprecedented financial crisis and negative GDP growth, despite Obama’s admission that he would consider suspending his tax law changes, IF the economy was bad.

If?

One is reminded of his criticism of President Clinton’s capital gains tax cuts during a debate last spring with Hillary Clinton in which, despite being informed by moderator Charlie Gibson that revenues increased after the rate cuts, Obama still favored higher rates due to concerns of “fairness”. What is “fair” about such policies that result in less wealth to spread around and less revenue to the government was not addressed.

By contrast, John McCain would lower the U.S. corporate tax rate, which is one of the highest in the industrialized world; make the Bush tax rate cuts permanent and lower the capital gains rate.

Calvin Coolidge famously said that “The business of America is business.”

One would hope!

But the results of this examination conclude that if we want more business, we had best hope we don’t get the tax “fairness” changes Obama believes in.